if you're still searching for a summer-challange or just have way too much free time on your hands, you can now stop picking your brain about what to do and get to work!

The sickest Rick of this board brings you the hippest grooves, the flashyest fills, the fastest licks and the coolest phrasings right of the brain of JoJo Mayer onto this very site.

From Germany with love, here comes the big one: JoJo Mayer Performance 3 transcribed in detail with all stickings (and even the part that is cut out on the video here on Drummerworld) by his lordliness aka SickRick. Enjoy.
Before you ask: around 40 hours.

The pics are mainly here to impress the shit out of you. If you want to print it out and work on it, I highly recommend the PDF because of the better quality.

Bernhard: Do you want to embedd this on the main site right under the vid? That would certainly be an honour for me! I can mail you the pics in much better quality for that matter if you like, just PM me on that matter.

Great job! I won't be learning it, but some of us here probably will :-).

Do you have a website with transcriptions?

Thanks Korompay and Jazzin! Korompay: Your transcription of JoJos DnB groove was what got me started doing this transcription... And for all the cool transcriptions you have made and shared here, I felt that I owed this one to you personally. So that's basically my way of saying

"Thank you Korompay and Terry Branam, keep doing what you're doing, its great! I and many other people love it and work on your stuff!"

Frank0072: You don't have to learn the whole thing.... :) just watch through the video and if you like a certain fill / lick / groove you can now just check the notation and then work on it. There is a ton of really cool stuff in there that's worth checking it out.

Unfortunately I don't have a website, but I do have some more transcriptions. Maybe I should start a thread like Korompays with all the stuff in it. Website is the next thing on my schedule :)

Cheers, Lutz

Oh btw: If anybody has any questions about the transcription, I do have plenty of good tips on how to work on all the parts of the solo. (I can play most of it, but not as fast and not in one take - that's my personal summer challange).

WOW!!!! Thanks so much for this... really, thanks, I'll start on it tomorrow!!

I memerized the D n'B groove and am nearly up to speed with it (it's taken a while to get trad grip and Moeller up to scratch!). Is there somewhere I can see the D n' B transcription to compare with what I've been playing?

More JoJo Mayer from this Video. Only the first part, maybe I'll tackle the last part also if I find the time. But the two fills in the beginning are just so damn cool, I had to transcribe them.

Oh btw: Does anybody know, if JoJo ist left-handed? Just asking this because he seems to "think" left handed (starts almost every paradiddle-like sticking with left, plays left-handed flams exclusivly - at least there is not one right-hand flam in either of the solos...). Just curious about this.

More JoJo Mayer from this Video. Only the first part, maybe I'll tackle the last part also if I find the time. But the two fills in the beginning are just so damn cool, I had to transcribe them.

Oh btw: Does anybody know, if JoJo ist left-handed? Just asking this because he seems to "think" left handed (starts almost every paradiddle-like sticking with left, plays left-handed flams exclusivly - at least there is not one right-hand flam in either of the solos...). Just curious about this.

Cheers!

Quote:

Originally Posted by ace76543

i love you more than life

I'll second what that dude said! It's so awesome having guys like you on the forum.
I've also come to notice the lefty-fills and flams. I'd be very, very surprised if he was a lefty, but I recently noticed in a YouTube video (something like "Oli Rockberger Jojo Mayer duo Zurich") he started a really powerful fill left handed, which surprised me a little. I looked back through a few old videos, and sure enough, he does start a lot of stuff left handed. I'm sure there is a good reason - probably so he can end with a right.

__________________-If Tony Williams played on the bottom of shoes, we would all get a pair and hope for the best!

I've been doing that for quite some time now, but obviously this was one of the hardest ones I ever did. The only thing equally difficult that I can recall was the drumpart of "Saisir" by Eric Truffaz.

The next one will be the this one, I'm already on it, but it will take at least a few more days depending on the time I have.
To give you at least some insight on the vid you've asked for: The ending (where he goes crazy around cymbals and the whole drumset) is exactly the same as in the one I've transcribed - it seems like a signature JoJo Mayer lick he likes to use. (Page 7 of my transcription, 4th line, second bar onwards).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Average

That is an awesome transcription. Thank you for doing it. He is a rudimental player if I've ever seen one.

Thank you. As far as rudimental player goes: Of course he is... I could break down at least 80% of the licks and fills he uses directly to rudiments. There are Singles, Doubles, Flams (quite obviously). But there's also reversed paradiddles (LRRLRLLR sometimes with the BD substituting for the diddles, so LBBLRBBR), Swiss Triplets, Alternating 3 Stroke Ruffs (basically the whole ending I was referring to earlier in this post), Multiple Bounces in the left hand... all kinds of things.
On the other hand, I could break down solos of other players like Gadd, Weckl, Smith or Colaiuta into rudiments just as well, simply because at the core of things, everything is either made up out of Singles, Doubles or flams.

Quote:

Originally Posted by king fail

I'll second what that dude said! It's so awesome having guys like you on the forum.
I've also come to notice the lefty-fills and flams. I'd be very, very surprised if he was a lefty, but I recently noticed in a YouTube video (something like "Oli Rockberger Jojo Mayer duo Zurich") he started a really powerful fill left handed, which surprised me a little. I looked back through a few old videos, and sure enough, he does start a lot of stuff left handed. I'm sure there is a good reason - probably so he can end with a right.

Also thank you. As far as ending stuff on the right hand goes: That's the funny thing about it. He sometimes doesn't end on the right, but on left. Especially Page 4, last two lines. Its a permutation of paradiddles first and then singles. But the Paras and the singles are both leading with the left hand on the China Cymbal. Rather strange... I'd never ever naturally choose to play it that way... always lead this kind of things with the right hand. But really: It's an interesting question, at least he does seem like a guy who has intensivly worked on his left hand and leading with the left hand.

Check it out and have fun with it. Of course, this one is played with a little swing to it and he uses basically the exact same licks as in Performance 3. The grooves in this one are really insane though... (again check the PDF if you want to print)

Does anybody know how Jojo does the conga thing on his snall tom where he gets that big woooosh sound? Is that mentioned in his dvd?

He just hits the tom with his right hand and then bends the tone up by pressing the middle/index finger of his left hand in the head and slides the finger to the centre of the tom. Quite easy - check my first transcription, there is a "bend up" somwhere in there (page two or three I guess).

Everybody else: thanks for the thanks, hehe.

I have an anouncement: "Performance 1" of JoJos DVD soon to be completed and posted here. I'm about half way through but it's difficult as hell, so have some patience. I have also figured out some JoJos stick-twirling stuff at the end of the 1998 modern drummer festival, but I think a transcription doesn't help. Maybe I'll put up a video lesson if people are interested in that (it'll take at least a month though because I don't have my drumset in my practise room until then).
Just let me know if you are interested.

That's so awesome man, thanks a lot. I've been meaning to transcribe some of Jojos performances for a while, but now I don't have to! haha

I just thought I'd say, I was told that Jojo is Ambidexterous, which might explain the left handed fills. I always try and start a lot of fills with my left hand, cause it's good practice and it feels cool to do.

Also, it's pretty cool that your surname is Mayer. The drum skills must run through the name!

I've had a severe Computercrash that involved one Wii-Nunchuk Controler, a glass of applejuice and my notebook. No more details needed.

I'll get back to it asap, but right now all my data seems to be drowned in applejuice. Also, I only had one installed version of Sibelius on my Laptop. Damn.

No worries.... I have a backup but it'll take a while until I'll get back to transcribing things. Performance 1 is coming - it's just coming with a little delay.

Not as bad as my mate at Uni. First week of University, he decided - whilst very, very drunk, to relieve himself into his laptop. Naturally it didn't work and he'd dropped over £1,000 on it just over a month before.

After some serious Computer problems, some heavy giggin with my band, setting up my own drum-recording studio (more about that later, after I got some sleep), whilst preparing to open my own drumschool......

I decided to sit down some more nights and transcribe some stuff. I had a real hard time with some of the craziness happening, but I'm pretty positve that the outcome is fairly precise. I'll take a closer look on it when I have gotten some sleep.

So without any further delay, here is JoJo Mayers "Performance 1" transcribed in detail with all the little gimmicks and blablabla. I hope someone will have a go on this one.... OK, I'll drop all the talking for now. I'll be back here tomorrow to post some more info and to answer possible questions. I'll try to get Bernhard to host the video here and put this to the clinic section as well...

For now: have fun, enjoy, don't get depressed that you can't play as fast as JoJo.

Great that you had a look at this and commented. This is a real honour for me since you are one of my drumming heros and I've spent countless hours working on your books and your transcriptions (especially Picture 3).
I started drums with a teacher who actually was one of your students in New York (which is a real big thing for a kid from the german hinterland): Hans Fickelscher. Maybe you remember him, he spent one year in NYC many years ago and studied with Pierre Favre later on. He got me started on drums with Syncopation and Stick Control and went to your books from there - I really feel that I owe everything that I have ever learnt about drumming to him and through the books I worked out of also to you. So thank you for writing them!

About the "1": I really wasn't sure about that the whole time through. Actually, I've changed that quite a few times and even thought that the whole thing might be in 5 or 7 or some other odd meter.

Like you, I think some things make more sense, if my 2 would be the 1. On the other hand, he ends and starts some phrases where I decided to put the 1, especially in the end and the beginning (the part which is cut out on YouTube).

To make it short: I had no idea and even thought about writing this out without a real meter... but I had to decide for one thing and this could as well be wrong. Maybe I should offer two different versions of this, so everybody can go what he feels better with.

Once again: Thanks a ton for this comment and for having a look at that piece of work. I'm really happy for all input.

This is great! Bravo Lutz! Thank you very much!
I think the "1" is in it's correct place in the transcription. At 0:27 in the Youtube clip Jojo plays a classic lick (for me it's Gadd, but maybe it's originated from Max Roach?). I always heard this phrase starting on the one, as we can see this in the transcription (last bar at the first page).

As somebody who is far inferior as a drummer (and indeed musician) I can't offer any helpful advice. Particularly with regards to any performance you might give of the piece itself. I wanted, mostly, to express my respect for you and the kind of work that you can do and choose to share.

As somebody who is far inferior as a drummer (and indeed musician) I can't offer any helpful advice. Particularly with regards to any performance you might give of the piece itself. I wanted, mostly, to express my respect for you and the kind of work that you can do and choose to share.